Friday, February 15, 2013

Why Miles loves his job... part two


Since we only have the one car, Miles takes me to all my doctor's appointments these days. We're lucky his job is flexible enough that he can usually fit things in wherever we need. 
Well, the other day we were on our way home and he decided to stop by one of his buildings to check on something or other...I forget. He said he just needed to "run in real quick," so I decided to stay in the car. 
After a good twenty or thirty minutes, I was starting to wonder if he'd been attacked by thugs hiding in the building or something. Our perception of "real quick" tends to be a leetle different, but not THAT much! I didn't want to be impatient, though, so I waited it out, and a couple minutes later he came out.
With a bird. That he caught. You know, the flying kind?
Yes, my husband can catch a bird with his hands. 
Actually, he had a little help from a cardboard box, but still! I don't think I could even catch a crippled pigeon, and here he is with a little sparrow or something in his hand like Mary Poppins!

 I guess it was flying around the cultural hall, so he chased it and finally caught it in one of the entryways where there was a little less room. Anyway, he brought it out to show me and I HELD IT ON MY FINGER! If I had ever really thought hard about cool things to put on my bucket list, that would have been one big check-off.
Miles and his new little friend

This is my finger, and yes, that is the bird perching happily
on it. It was so soft and cute! 
 We eventually let it fly away, of course, but first it landed on my windowsill. I promise, that is a real bird! Then it flew off to a nearby bush, and I administered copious amounts of hand sanitizer to the both of us. :)

I wish I had some bread or something...maybe we could have taught it some tricks
Now I guess we can say that Miles's work has included the birds and the bees? ...that pun's for you, Mom :)

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

40 weeks and counting...

This story begins a couple days before Father's Day last year, when I started suspecting there might be something up. I was feeling ravenously hungry, like how you feel when you haven't eaten all day and you'd better eat something soon or feel sick, and I was pretty sure I knew why. Yay! I didn't tell Miles, because a)I wasn't sure yet and wanted to test, and b)if I WAS pregnant, telling him on Father's Day would be too fun. We had a pregnancy test from the dollar store(thanks, Kira, haha!), and I bought another to make up for any dollar store-ness that might throw the results, and sneakily hid them in the bathroom, where Miles would never look(with the curling irons :)). Saturday morning I got up early and took the tests while Miles was still asleep(my heart was pounding so fast!!), and sure enough--two little pink lines on both of them! Yippee!!! Now was the hardest part...
I had to wait a whole day until telling Miles, and I am NOT a good secret keeper when it is something exciting. I almost told Miles what his Christmas presents were like five times this year.
Anyway, I made a little card that said something like, "you're the BEST husband ever, my BEST friend, and going to be the BEST dad ever someday." Something like that. Then I wrapped up the pregnancy tests in a little box that said this inside:

I've never been so excited for a Father's Day gift in my life!

Eight weeks, and I thought I might be showing a little  :)

Finally it's Father's Day morning and I give him his gift...I am sooooo excited...
He reads the card, opens the box, and...nothing. I'm thinking, "Oh no, is he not as excited as I am?" I ask if he knows what it is, and he's like, "pregnancy tests. What am I going to do with these?"
:D  I guess he had just sort of "skimmed" the writing on the lid of the box...
"Honey, they're positive! You're going to be a daddy!!!"
.................................
I asked him a few days ago what the happiest moments of his life were, and that was one of the first ones he said. He was SO excited, and I know he's going to be the most amazing dad in the world to our little boy. He already makes me the happiest wife there could be!

Nineteen weeks...time to break out some stretchy pants!
I've been super lucky in that I didn't ever get sick or that uncomfortable...pretty much I just feel like myself with a big belly. Yesterday I tested it out, and I can still comfortably ride my bike at 40 weeks. Go figure. I do wonder, though, if this means that our little guy plans to stay inside for a lot longer. I have my fingers crossed not to have to be induced.
22 weeks with Jenn, who was ?18 weeks? 
25 weeks

 My sister Jenn and my sister-in-law Michelle are also pregnant, which is pretty much the best thing ever. This way I have a stash of sisters who are never TOO tired of all the pregnancy questions I have. A couple things that were surprising to me? 

    1. At night I can only sleep on my left side. On the other side or my back I start feeling kinda sick. I am sooooooo excited to be able to just do whatever at bedtime again! For some reason in the morning it doesn't matter. :) 
    2. Any skin that is stretching is ITCHY. No one warned me about that one. 
    3. Higher body temperature & increased blood volume = sweaty beast! All I can say is that I salute anyone who's had a baby due in July or August. 

Jump to 34 weeks, and my awesome Christmas decorations
One thing I love is how friendly and nice people are to pregnant ladies. I think it just finally gives people something easy to approach you about, and complete strangers will start up conversations with me wherever I go. And I'm not talking about the lady who yelled out her car window to ask what my due date was as I crossed the crosswalk... :)
35 weeks
 FACT: "Nesting" is amazing. I got so many things done in the past couple months that have been on my to do list for oh, a YEAR. Like painting all the trim and baseboards in our house. I wish I could say that our house now looks like a Martha Stewart/Pinterest miracle makeover, but it does look a whole lot cleaner with the bright white trim.
36 weeks, and ready for some painting of all the trim. Miles's
comment when he saw this picture was "yehar ye matey"...
 Ok, and the final(for now) picture: TA-DAAAA! I think it looks pretty much the same as I do right now, and since I actually still have my hair in a towel today we'll skip the 40 weeks pic for the moment. :D
39 weeks...allllmost there!
 Things I'm looking forward to with the greatest anticipation:
1. Holding our little son! Seeing his teeny little face and hands for real!
2. Seeing my amazing husband as a dad for the first time(and I wonder what he'll be like when I'm in labor?)
3. Laying on my stomach!!! and back!
4. Eating raw cookie dough
5. Tying my shoes without sitting down and doing the man style leg-cross
6. Getting up from bed without making grunting sounds
7. Dressing him in all the to-die-for cute outfits people have gifted us! Warning: I may be one of those crazy picture moms.
8. All the firsts; smile, laugh, outing in the jogging stroller :)
9. Wearing all my other pants again someday! Yaaaay!
10. Oh yeah, and finding that elusive NAME for our little guy! We're determined to decide by the time we leave the hospital, though, so don't worry!





Saturday, February 9, 2013

Ocean fishing at its finest

Since I'm getting super impatient these days waiting for our little guy, I asked Miles what kind of fun thing we could do this weekend before we have the baby. His idea? Go fishing!

It's free to fish off the piers here, and you don't need a license, so that is naturally the place we tried first. We've probably been at least five times, and we've never even gotten a bite, so Miles has been wild to figure out what kind of bait people are using, and any little tips. Well, a couple weeks ago we met up with Jenn and her kids in Oceanside, and Miles got a new tip and got really excited...I guess the guy was actually catching all kinds of fish, and said you just need a Sabiki jig and a weight, so next chance Miles got, he was off to WalMart and back with what was to now change our fishing lives. For a few bucks it was worth a try, right?

Today was the lucky day, and MAN was that new jig worth it! Here is a minute or two after the first cast...


Can you see the excitement on his face? We were pretty much giggling with excitement--in TWO YEARS of trying to ocean fish off this pier, we've never caught a thing, and here we were reeling in the first fish as if we were back at Utah Lake. Whee!
being all studly with his fish...

It was a mackerel. 
 People told us this was a good one to use for bait, because I guess other mackerels like to eat each other, but our baitless jig was working good so far, and cutting up a fish would be gross, so we tossed him back and cast again.
Ta-daaaa! Two for two! 
  This one's a sun perch, according to some guy who stopped by to see what we were catching. I just googled that, though, and they don't look anything alike to me, so this fish may remain a mystery. Ten points to anyone who knows what it is!
Heeeeeere fishy fishy fishy fishy!
We caught another five or so in the next little while, and then it was time to move the car. Seal Beach has an hour limit, and since we'd never had success before we figured that would be enough time to get our fill of fishing. Wrong! We definitely needed another hour. Miles ran back to move to a different space and left me with the pole. I didn't put the line in right away, because I don't like taking the fish off by myself as much as I like Miles taking them off for me. :) I couldn't wait too long, though, and of course a minute or so after I dropped the line, I feel a fish. I look around...no Miles. I decided to keep the line in and wait a bit. Soon I feel more desperate wiggling and look, and there are now TWO fish attached. At this point my line is bent like a C and there is a family impatiently waiting for me to reel my line in so they can show their son what a fish looks like. I finally give in and reel in the fish, thinking I can always lower them back down until Miles gets back...which he did shortly, saving me from all the offers of help taking them off. Not without a picture first, by george. 
Very attractive fishing Miles with #12
 Grand total for the day? Twelve fish! Next time we're going to bring a bucket and see if we can have ourselves a little hillbilly fish fry when we get home.